Rajan, an IIM- Ahmedabad alum, and who, till recently, led Flipkart-owned Myntra’s mobile business, will join Paytm as vice president this week itself.NEW DELHI: Mobile goods and services venture Paytm has named Myntra senior executive Abhishek Rajan as the head of its recently-launched travel segment, a move that comes at a time when India’s startup majors are not only competing for a larger slice of the consumer’s wallets, but also for top talent.

Rajan, an IIM- Ahmedabad alum, and who, till recently, led Flipkart-owned Myntra’s mobile business, will join Paytm as vice president this week itself, and be based out of Bengaluru, the Alibaba Group-backed, Noida-based company’s founder and chief executive, Vijay Shekhar Sharma confirmed to ET.

"We look at businesses that will help us to be profitable, and there is a lot of incumbency in the online travel segment in India. Abhishek, with his experience, is the right person to lead our efforts," Sharma said.

While still a departure from the norm, Rajan’s hiring by Paytm is second such senior-level appointment by one startup, having lured away talent from another leading venture.

Traditionally, India’s consumer internet majors, such as Flipkart, the country’s largest ecommerce company, Snapdeal, India’s largest online marketplace, and online food ordering and restaurant reservation company Zomato, have largely poached almost their entire senior leadership from conglomerates, such as Unilever and Airtel, or from consultancy giants, such as McKinsey.

However, earlier this month, SoftBank-backed Ola lured away Flipkart’s head of corporate affairs, Joy Bandekar, as the ride-hailing app tries to iron out regulatory hurdles and advocate favourable regulatory environment in regions where it has had tough run-ins with policymakers.

"It was bound to happen. While the FMCGs and consultancies have been happy hunting grounds for India’s startups, they are now looking at other startup talent to grow their businesses," said talent and executive leadership hiring consultant on the condition of anonymity, given that he works with a number of leading startups.

Interestingly, this will be Rajan’s second stint at One97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm.

In his prior stint with the company, Rajan played a critical role in setting up the company’s digital payments and ecommerce business, before quitting to join Flipkart in 2012.

Paytm launched its travel business in December last year, establishing its presence in a space, which has, thus far, been dominated by online travel agencies, including, GoIbibo.com, MakeMy-Trip.com, ClearTrip.com and yatra.com.

"The fight is about transparency and utilising the mobile platform," Sharma said, revealing that the company, which has received commitments of about $680 million from Chinese ecommerce behemoth Alibaba Group in September, has already achieved an annual revenue run-rate of $100 million from the sale of bus tickets.

According to him, Paytm and Rajan’s first order of business will be to ramp up hiring for the new category.

"The travel segment could well be the fastest $10 billion category for us," Sharma said.